Chapter FIREFLY to FIRINGHEE of F by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

among foliage, and being continually, but only momentarily, hidden behind the leaves. —Proc. Entom. Soc. of London, 1865, pp. 94–95.

Fifteen years later at the same Society:

“Sir Sidney Saunders stated that in the South of Europe (Corfu and Albania) the simultaneous flashing of Luciola italica, with intervals of complete darkness for some seconds, was constantly witnessed in the dark summer nights, when swarming myriads were to be seen.… He did not concur in the hypothesis propounded by Mr. McLachlan … the flashes are certainly intermittent … the simultaneous character of these coruscations among vast swarms would seem to depend upon an instinctive impulse to emit their light at certain intervals as a protective influence, which intervals became assimilated to each other by imitative emulation. But whatever be the causes … the fact itself was incontestable.”—Ibid. for 1880, Feby. 24, p. ii.; see also p. vii.

1868.—“At Singapore … the little luminous beetle commonly known as the firefly (Lampyris, sp. ign.) is common … clustered in the foliage of the trees, instead of keeping up an irregular twinkle, every individual shines simultaneously at regular intervals, as though by a common impulse; so that their light pulsates, as it were, and the tree is for one moment illuminated by a hundred brilliant points, and the next is almost in total darkness. The intervals have about the duration of a second, and during the intermission only one or two remain luminous.”—Collingwood, Rambles of a Naturalist, p. 255.

1880.—“HARBINGERS OF THE MONSOON. —One of the surest indications of the approach of the monsoon is the spectacle presented nightly in the Mawul taluka, that is, at Khandalla and Lanoli, where the trees are filled with myriads of fireflies, which flash their phosphoric light simultaneously. Each tree suddenly flashes from bottom to top. Thousands of trees presenting this appearance simultaneously, afford a spectacle beautiful, if not grand, beyond conception. This little insect, the female of its kind, only appears and displays its brilliant light immediately before the monsoon.”—Deccan Herald. (From Pioneer Mail, June 17).

FIRINGHEE, s. Pers. Farangi, Firingi; Ar. Al-Faranj, Ifranji, Firanji, i.e. a Frank. This term for a European is very old in Asia, but when now employed by natives in India is either applied (especially in the South) specifically to the Indian-born Portuguese, or, when used more generally, for ‘European,’ implies something of hostility or disparagement. (See Sonnerat and Elphinstone below.) In South India the Tamil P’arangi, the Singhalese Parangi, mean only ‘Portuguese,’ [or natives converted by the Portuguese, or by Mahommedans, any European (Madras Gloss. s.v.). St. Thomas’s Mount is called in Tam. Parangi Malai, from the original Portuguese settlement]. Piringi is in Tel.=‘cannon,’ (C. B. P.), just as in the medieval Mahommedan historians we find certain mangonels for sieges called maghribi or ‘Westerns.’ [And so Farhangi or Phirangi is used for the straight cut and thrust swords introduced by the Portuguese into India, or made there in imitation of the foreign weapon (Sir W. Elliot, Ind. Antiq. xv. 30)]. And it may be added that Baber, in describing the battle of Panipat (1526) calls his artillery Farangiha (see Autob. by Leyden and Erskine, p. 306, note. See also paper by Gen. R. Maclagan, R.E., on early Asiatic fire-weapons, in J.A.S. Beng. xlv. Pt. i. pp. 66–67).

c. 930.—“The Afranjah are of all those nations the most warlike … the best organised, the most submissive to the authority of their rulers.”—Mas’udi, iii. 66.

c. 1340.—“They call Franchi all the Christians of these parts from Romania westward.”—Pegolotti, in Cathay, &c., 292.

c. 1350.—“— Franks. For so they term us, not indeed from France, but from Frank-land (non a Franciâ sed a Franquiâ).” —Marignolli, ibid. 336.

In a Chinese notice of the same age the horses carried by Marignolli as a present from the Pope to the Great Khan are called “horses of the kingdom of Fulang,” i.e. of Farang or Europe.

1384.—“E quello nominare Franchi procede da’ Franceschi, che tutti ci appellano Franceschi.”—Frescobaldi, Viaggio, p. 23.

1436.—“At which time, talking of Cataio, he told me howe the chief of that Princes corte knewe well enough what the Franchi were.… Thou knowest, said he, how neere were bee unto Capha, and that we practise thither continually … adding this further, We Cataini have, twoo eyes, and yo^w Franchi one, whereas yo^w (torneng him towards the Tartares that were w^th him) have neuer a one.…”—Barbaro, Hak. Soc. 58.

c. 1440.—“Hi nos Francos appellant, aiuntque cum ceteras gentes coecas vocent, se duobis oculis, nos unico esse, superiores existimantes se esse prudentiâ.”—Conti, in Poggius, de Var. Fortunae, iv.

1498.—“And when he heard this he said that such people could be none other than Francos, for so they call us in those parts.” —Roteiro de V. da Gama, 97.

1560.—“Habitão aqui (Tabriz) duas nações